<span style="color: #222222;">Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is working with the Rural Development Ministry, State Government Emporia and Development Commission Handicrafts to onboard Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and artisan clusters on GeM. It was announced by CEO of GeM, Talleen Kumar in New Delhi. </span><br />''<br />''The products will be categorized as Emporium Products where the unique items produced by India's artisans will be available on GeM. Work is underway to factor in technical solutions so that working capital and traceability of the items are available to buyers and sellers on the platform. More than 3000 startups are already registered on GeM and they have received orders amounting to 522 crore rupees till date. More than 58,101 MSMEs are registered on the platform and 50 per cent of the entire transactional value on GeM is from MSMEs. <br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">CEO GeM informed that the Gross Merchandise Value on GeM portal has crossed 36 thousand crore rupees and nearly 40 thousand buyer organisations are registered on the procurement portal. There are over 2.95 lakh sellers and service providers on GeM and the average time taken for seller registration has come down from 20 days to 2 days. Given the shorter procurement cycles and competitive prices, Government entities in general and CPSUs, in particular, are increasingly procuring from GeM.</span><br />